Estonian Research and Development and Innovation

3.3.2. Qualification, effectiveness and workload of supervisors and graduation efficiency

In research supervision, the Musicology Department plays a significant role in supervising student research not only in their own field of specialisation but also in artistic specialities. The Musicology Department has sufficient and adequate competence for this – the department employs 11 active researchers with a doctoral degree, some of whom are also active as performing musicians, which increases their competence for supervising artistic research projects. The Musicology Department is responsible for all non-pedagogical graduation theses at the master’s level and for all research projects in doctoral studies. The research subjects and state of research of doctoral students in musicology is reviewed twice every semester to ensure consistency of work. Research paper workshops are provided for doctoral students in music on a weekly basis by three members of the academic staff of the Musicology Department (including the head of the Centre for Doctoral Studies and the head of the Musicology Department). Every doctoral student in music is required to demonstrate his/her work at least once a semester and participate in reviewing the work of fellow students on three occasions. The working languages of the workshop are Estonian and English, but German or Russian may be used in special cases. The feedback on the workshops has been overwhelmingly positive. Similar research paper workshops have also been launched in the speciality of dramatic arts.
A total of 14 doctoral students in music, one doctoral student in musicology and one doctoral student in dramatic arts completed their studies from 2011 to 2015. (It should be noted that further doctoral degree completions are expected in 2016 in both musicology and dramatic arts). As of December 2015, EAMT had 45 doctoral students, including 26 in music, 6 in dramatic arts, and 13 in musicology.
While EAMT has been able to meet the established target of three completions of doctoral studies per year (there were even four completions in 2015, see Table 3.4), only few students complete their studies in the standard period of study (only 2 doctoral students from 16 managed to do this in the period 2011−2015). The delays in the studies are mostly caused by high workload at work, family circumstances or, in the case of foreign doctoral students, lack of experience with writing an academic paper in English (for most of them English is a foreign language).
Table 3.4. Completions of doctoral studies in 2011−2015.

	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Completions	3	3	3	3	4
Of which in the standard study period	1	0	1	0	0

EAMT has introduced several measures to improve the efficiency of completions. The standards for admission examinations for doctoral students have been raised (up to five doctoral students are admitted per year, the examination includes two rounds), as have those for evaluation at the end of every academic year. The subjects of “Practice-based Research Methods in Arts” (in cooperation with EAA) and “Academic Writing” were introduced as mandatory for doctoral students in music and dramatic arts. Doctoral students are encouraged to work consistently on their thesis. At the end of the second study year, doctoral students are required to present the current text of their doctoral thesis, equivalent to about one research article in length, which is discussed in the workshop with the supervisor and submitted to the evaluation committee. The Centre for Doctoral Studies has organised public conferences in the spring semester of every academic year since 2014, providing an opportunity for thirdyear doctoral students of music and dramatic arts to give a presentation of their research subject, reflecting the current state of their research. The doctoral students of musicology have a mandatory requirement to give a presentation at an international research conference by the end of their third study year at the latest.
The Graduate School of Culture Studies and Arts was established in 2009 with financing from the EU Structural Funds as a consortium bringing together PhD level activity of EAMT, EAA, Tallinn University and the University of Tartu. This has supplemented our doctoral programmes with a wider interdisciplinary dimension and has created further opportunities for doctoral students at EAMT to take courses and participate in summer and winter schools at other universities. In 2009–2015 EAMT was a lead partner in the consortium, from 2016 onwards EAMT continues in it as a partner.
When admitting new students, the Doctoral Committee makes sure that all doctoral students are provided with competent supervision. A member of the academic staff from another university or a senior specialist from outside EAMT can serve as a co-supervisor if necessary. The doctoral students in the artistic branch have, as a rule, two supervisors – one for the artistic work and the other for the written thesis. From 2011 to 2015, the average number of thesis completions was two defended theses per regular staff member of the Musicology Department. However, the actual distribution of the supervisory workload between staff members was quite unbalanced. The current supervisory workload has been more evenly distributed since 2015. The doctoral students of dramatic arts have been supervised mainly by two staff members of the Drama School; however, there has been a perceived need for guidance from an expert in dramatic arts with a scholarly focus. This issue will be resolved in the academic year 2016/2017 with the creation of a new position of a research fellow and doctoral supervisor at the Drama School of EAMT. The supervisor of a successfully defended doctoral dissertation receives a performance-related bonus.
The supervisors participate in continuous further education through conferences on student supervision, which are organised in Estonia or by AEC and ELIA. Cooperation for the sharing of experiences and further improvement has been initiated with the PhD programmes of the SibA and a study visit has been organised to see the doctoral studies arrangements at the Helsinki Theatre Academy. The supervisors of the artistic branch continue to educate themselves through master classes and international competitions in order to be familiar with the requirements applicable at the highest international level.
A doctoral students’ feedback survey was organised in November 2014 to improve the quality of doctoral studies. The survey was conducted both in a written format and as a roundtable conversation (doctoral students’ feedback surveys had also been organised before at intervals of two or three years). The positive comments highlighted the competence of the academic staff, high professionalism of the supervision and the importance of research paper workshops, flexibility in the drafting of study plans, good relations with other universities in Estonia and abroad, the work of the Graduate School and its coordinator at EAMT, the good balance between artistic and research activities in the curriculum of the artistic branch, and the opportunity to write the doctoral dissertation in Estonian. The identified problems and weaknesses included the need for more subject-specific lecture courses as well as for general courses on philosophy and cultural history. Some of the comments were taken into account during the curriculum renewal in the academic year 2015/2016. The doctoral curriculum of musicology was supplemented with the course Methodology 2 (higher level) as well as a requirement to elect subjects on philosophy and cultural history at other universities and at the Graduate School of Culture Studies and Arts. EAMT also tries to offer such courses as far as possible.